If Liverpool is known for producing bands with the ability to produce exquisite music whilst not taking themselves too seriously from The Beatles to The Coral then Big Tide’s first single from the forthcoming Sync or Swim (you see what they did there?) album is the perfect continuation of that tradition. Musically it fits on to a timeline of influence that runs from the original Byrdsian jangle pop through the bands who reinvented it on the west coast in the 80’s as the Paisley Underground scene, their English contemporaries such as The Icicle Works and on to more recent champions of the sound such as Guided by Voices.
It is lushly delivered, jaunty and infectious, uses hypnotic chiming guitar hooks and instantly accessible vocals to engage with the listener, it wanders pastoral pop pathways and is as brilliant as it is understated. As someone writing from the back room of a small railway cottage in Swindon town centre, the highest accolade I can give perhaps is to say that if Andy Partridge had written this, especially in his incarnation as a one of the Dukes of The Stratosphear, it would today be being hailed as a classic. Time will tell.
